


A Different Beginning

by tastethewaste



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Mpreg, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-07 03:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastethewaste/pseuds/tastethewaste
Summary: Harry and Draco are enjoying their time as empty-nesters, until an unexpected wrench is thrown into their plans.





	A Different Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to sassy_cissa for the last minute beta job, and being awesome! :)

“Just put it down over there,” Ellie said, directing her brothers to set down her couch along the back wall of the living room. Harry and Draco filed in behind Liam and Theo, setting down the two boxes they were carrying gently. Well, _Harry_ set his down gently; Draco dropped his with a loud _thud_. 

“ _Dad!_ ” Ellie screeched, her green eyes blazing amidst her mass of curly black hair. She was Harry’s twin: small, skinny and always angry at Draco. “Be more careful, I don’t want you to break anything!” 

“Maybe if you hadn’t amassed the world’s largest and heaviest collection of useless items, and _then_ forced your family members to heave them up two flights of stairs all afternoon, then I could’ve found it in my heart to gently lay your items at your feet, Eleanor,” Draco said haughtily, shoving the box aside with a kick. 

“Draco,” Harry muttered, pinching the back of his arm, which earned Harry a kick, as well. 

Draco sighed. “Apologies, darling. I’m just broken hearted about your departure, that’s all.” 

Ellie smiled wryly. “Oh, please. You two have been waiting for ages to become empty-nesters. You practically shoved me out.” 

“Completely untrue, my love,” Harry said, hugging his only daughter close to him. “I’m going to miss you terribly, and Dad will, too.”

“Oh, for the love of Merlin,” Theo muttered. Their middle child was Draco all over again, if Draco had ever “ _lost his mind_ ” (in his own words), grown his hair to his shoulders and dressed “like a homeless Squib”. Again, Draco’s words.

“When Theo and I moved out, the two of you practically kicked us in the arse out the door and danced a jig,” Liam said ruefully. Liam was their eldest, and in looks he was a blend of both of his fathers: Harry’s dark hair, but perfectly coiffed like Draco’s; ice blue eyes and Harry’s nose. 

“Perhaps if you and Theodore had left _before_ you turned twenty-one...” Harry said innocently. 

“We’d started to worry that you’d never leave. At least your sister only stayed the summer after Hogwarts,” Draco said. 

“Whatever,” Liam and Theo both muttered, and Harry laughed. 

“We love you weirdos, too,” he said, hugging both of his sons in turn. “You know that no matter what happens, no matter how old you get, all of you can always come home. Always.”

“Now, now...don’t go overboard…” Draco admonished with a smile.

They all stood in a semi-awkward silence for just a moment, three grown children and their parents. Things had changed, they could all feel it. There was a marked difference between being someone’s child and being someone’s _adult_ child, and it seemed that Ellie had finally joined that club with her brothers. It felt even more different, now that all three of them were gone. Their family unit was still whole, but different. 

Then the silence was broken, and everyone was bustling about: Theo and Liam were hugging their baby sister and saying how proud they were of her; Draco and Harry were hugging their boys and kissing Ellie, telling her how marvelous her new place was and how wonderful she’d do at her new job; Liam, Theo and Ellie were all promising to Harry that _yes, Dad_ , they’d be at dinner next Sunday, they hadn’t forgotten; and then they were all on their way. Liam and Theo Apparated back to their own lives, and Harry and Draco were left standing on the street below Ellie’s building, holding hands and eventually Apparating back to their home. 

Harry and Draco landed back at their spacious, four-bedroom home with a thud. Draco unlocked the front door with a muttered “ _Alohomora_ ,” and walked in. Harry, however, remained outside for a moment. He enjoyed the cool September breeze as it wafted by, and he closed his eyes. If he concentrated hard enough, he could still hear the shouts of his children as they played in this yard; he worried that when he went inside, he’d see them opening their Christmas presents or doing their homework. 

Suddenly, Draco stuck his head outside. “What on earth are you doing out here? I’ve been having a conversation with you for five minutes and you haven’t even been there.” 

Harry smiled. “Five whole minutes? I knew you liked to hear yourself talk but that’s long, even for you.” 

“Yes, well...I repeat, what are you doing out here? It’s getting to be bloody freezing.” 

“I’m afraid it’ll be too weird in there,” he said quietly. 

Draco let out a long, dramatic sigh and went outside. He grabbed Harry by the hands and dragged him into their home, removed Harry’s coat and hung it up as if he were a child. Then Draco appraised Harry with one of his infamous stares. Draco’s silent, patient stares were one of his few overtly Malfoy traits that remained. It had always worked wonders on their mischievous children; a few moments of that look, and they’d confess to anything. Finally, he spoke. “You’re overreacting to this whole thing just a _tad_ , don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t think that at all. I think _you’re_ underreacting,” Harry said with a heavy dose of Gryffindor stubbornness. 

Draco sighed again. “I know you’re sad about Ellie leaving, Harry. But we always knew this day would come! Children have the annoying tendency to grow up.” He said the last part with a teasing smile, one that he was disappointed to find Harry not return.

“I know, I know, but now they’ve all moved out, and I’m just a bit sad, alright?” Harry said crossly. 

Draco reached out and took a hold of Harry’s sleeve and tugged him closer. Harry buried himself in one of Draco’s hugs, the kind he gave out rarely because it was such a brazen display of affection. Harry had, unsurprisingly, always been the more affectionate of the pair, always the one prone to hugs and long talks about feelings. 

After a moment, Draco led Harry to the couch and they flopped down, Draco slipping his arm around Harry and pulling him close. They were quiet for a while, watching as the sun slipped further down. After some time, Draco said, “This could be a good thing for us, you know?” 

“I’m listening…” Harry said. 

“Well, when you think about it, we haven’t _really_ had time to ourselves for our entire marriage. We got together, we had Liam, and the rest is history,” Draco said thoughtfully. 

He was right, Harry thought. They’d sort of...fallen into their lives together at a young age. They’d started fucking after the Battle of Hogwarts, their relationship born out of a mutual need for physical touch. For Harry, it had been out of some misguided attempt at healing, at fixing what had been so terribly broken throughout his formative years at Hogwarts. They were eighteen and fucked up and _sad_ , and stealing secret moments in Muggle hotels while their friends and family members were none the wiser seemed to help. 

Five months after they’d started seeing each other, Harry had nausea that wouldn’t go away and he’d gained five extra pounds that seemed like they weren’t going anywhere. Fearing the worst, he saw a Healer who beamed at him and offered a hearty congratulations, bestowing upon him a photograph of a tiny embryo that would later be Harry and Draco’s eldest son. 

The rest, as Draco said, was history. Draco and Harry were nineteen when Liam came into the world; Theo followed two years later and another three and a half years after that, Ellie made her graceful entrance into their family. Harry had carried all of their children, a fact that had simply come to be on its own, with no discussion between the two. They had assumed that Draco couldn’t carry children, as he’d never had so much as a scare. It was fairly well-known in the Wizarding world that males were much less likely to be able to carry children than females; it amounted to about a fifty/fifty shot as to whether a male Wizard would be able to conceive children. Harry’s three (unplanned) pregnancies indicated that he was, as Draco had coined him “Fertile Moaning Myrtle” and that was that. 

Draco had recoiled in horror the one time they’d bothered to discuss the idea of him getting pregnant. “Are you out of your sodding _mind?_ ” he’d yelped when Harry asked if he was ever sorry that he hadn’t been able to have any of their babies. “I have no desire to have a tiny parasite inside of me, eating all of my food and _ruining_ my figure. I’m perfectly content with the way we’ve arranged things, thank you.” Harry had looked down at his stretch-marked skin and flabby tummy, which held the fifteen stubborn pounds of pregnancy weight that he could never seem to lose. “You’re perfect the way you are, Harry, of course,” Draco had said hurriedly. 

And so Draco was right--their lives together had been filled with children for almost the entire time they’d been together. He could recall very few evenings that weren’t spent with sticky fingers and cooking dinner, helping with homework and costumes for primary school plays. They’d had alone time while the children were away at Hogwarts, but even during those times there had been kids around, during school breaks and holidays, and the summers. 

Their house was truly _their house_ now, and would be for the rest of their lives. Their kids would visit on family dinner nights and holidays, but they’d leave at the end of the day. It was just the two of them, Harry and Draco. 

“You’re right, Dray. Just the two of us. I’ll admit, that does sound nice,” Harry said, kissing his husband. 

“We don’t ever have to worry about being quiet ever again!” Draco cried triumphantly, and Harry laughed. 

“You’re just thinking of all the places we can shag now without the kids walking in, aren’t you?” Harry said slyly. 

“This is going to sound crazy, but I’ve always wanted to do it in the mudroom…” 

“That room is entirely made of windows.”

“I know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So began the Malfoy-Potter Sex Marathon, also known as the period of time in which Draco had sex in almost every square inch of their home that they’d never explored. 

The mudroom, as it turned out, was not as impractical as Harry had imagined; the fact that the neighbors might walk by at any moment was thrilling and did wonders for the sex life of a couple who’d been married for twenty-one years. 

They fucked in the living room, on the kitchen island, and the dining room table (Harry hated the table; it was much sexier in Muggle movies than in practice in their home). They fucked in the backyard underneath the oak tree at night, something Draco insisted upon. They fucked in the hallway leading to their bedrooms, and on the stairs, which was awful.

They had sex in the laundry room, the jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, and the pantry (the warmth of the dryer wasn’t unpleasant, the tub was phenomenal, but he had abhorred the pantry and the shelves grinding into his back was painful). 

Hell, they even had sex in the half-bathroom downstairs. It was an utter failure, and ended with Harry’s ass somehow uncomfortably wedged in the tinier-than-he’d-thought sink while Draco laughed maniacally.

Even at its worst, most of it was really good, and they had fun finding places to explore that they’d never gone before. At least not sexually. 

One night after a rousing romp in their actual bed, Draco laid in Harry’s arms, both of them sweaty and content. 

“I gotta admit, having the house to ourselves is better than I thought it’d be,” Harry said, dropping a lazy kiss onto Draco’s lips. 

“I’ve been thinking,” Draco began after a few moments. 

“Uh oh, _that’s_ never good,” Harry said teasingly. 

“Shut up, prat. I’ve been thinking that I want to use the rest of my parent’s money and open a bookshop.” 

Harry sat up and looked at him. “A bookshop?” 

“Yes, a bookshop with lots of rare books that are hard to find everywhere,” Draco said. 

His parents had died after a tragic potion incident a year before; Lucius, grown careless in his old age, had attempted to brew an anti-nausea potion for himself and his wife, and added a wrong ingredient. They’d both languished in St. Mungo’s for a week before dying. It was slow, painful and Draco had spent the last moments of his parents lives holding their hands alone, after banishing Harry and the kids from his side. His parents hadn’t spoken to him since they’d announced their pregnancy to them. It had messed Draco up for a while, but he’d gotten better in recent months, and they’d used much of the money the Malfoys had left Draco to pay off their home. There was still at tidy sum left, however. 

“I just think with the kids gone, it’s time for me to have a career, too. I want to do this,” Draco said.

“I think if that’s what you want, then you’ll be brilliant at it. And I support you,” Harry said, kissing Draco again. 

And so the hunt for a storefront for Draco’s bookstore began. Over the next two months, they looked at dozens of properties, each one shot down by Draco for some small reason or another. If he was being honest, Harry had started to get annoyed with Draco; they’d seen many fine properties and he was being stubborn, insisting that the place needed to be “absolutely perfect”. 

And then one day, a small place went up for sale in Diagon Alley. It was down the street from Madame Malkin’s, and it was one of the smallest places they’d looked at so far. It was dark, dingy and dusty, and needed a ton of work. 

“Oh, Draco, this is…” Harry muttered, tugging at his husband’s sleeve as he stared in awe at the ruins before them. The place had once been a potions shop that went belly-up, and there was nothing left of value in the place. Everything needed to be remodeled. 

“I know, it’s perfect!” Draco said happily, and Harry gaped at him. 

“Dray, it’s a mess. This’ll take months of work. What about that place we saw last week, it was ready to go and beautiful!” 

“There’s no _character_ there, I told you that. This place has a history, and I want to add to it. This is the place. I know it.” 

Harry sighed and shrugged. “If this is what you want to undertake, then okay. I’ll help however I can.”

“Thank you,” Draco said with a jubilant smile, kissing Harry full on the mouth. It was sweet, Harry had to admit, to see Draco so excited. Merlin knew it had been a while.

They called the owner of the building and made an offer, and celebrated their success with another romp, this time christening the futon in the study. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three weeks later, on a cold December evening, Harry came into the house after work with a bottle of wine and a bag of Chinese take out. Draco had sent him a message that his day had been chaos as he’d been searching for inventory for the store, and didn’t have the time or energy to cook. Harry had promised to pick up dinner. Visions of a decadent meal of greasy food that they didn’t normally allow themselves had filled his head, washed down with many glasses of expensive wine, and capped off with a slightly drunken night of loud sex, their favorite kind since the departure of their children. 

He’d looked forward to it all day. 

Therefore, he was less-than-thrilled when he came into the house with his purchases and was not greeted by his husband with a sarcastic smile and a kiss. He was instead greeted by his _livid_ husband, who was holding up a pregnancy test and screeched “ _Do you have any idea what in Merlin’s beard you’ve done to me?!_ ” as soon as he saw Harry. Then, he burst into uncharacteristic tears. 

“What the hell’s going on?” Harry asked, striding over to Draco and trying to take him in his arms. Draco wriggled away from him and waved a pregnancy test in Harry’s face. 

“ _You’ve impregnated me, that’s what’s going on, you moron!_ ” Draco shouted at him. 

Harry ripped the pregnancy test from Draco’s sweaty hand and stared at it; two solid pink lines stared back at him. “How is this possible?” 

“We’ve been having sex all over every inch of this house, _that’s_ how it’s possible,” Draco seethed. 

“But I thought you couldn’t get pregnant. We both thought you couldn’t get pregnant! How…”

“Well, I guess we were wrong! I’m too _young_ to be pregnant, Merlin’s beard...I feel like an unwed teenage witch,” Draco lamented dramatically. 

Harry rolled his eyes. “You’re forty-two years old, Draco.” 

“I’m sorry, but I never wanted to be pregnant. I’ve worked too hard to continue to look like _this_ ,” Draco preened shamelessly in front of his husband, “to get pregnant. You were supposed to carry the kids, Harry, that’s the arrangement.” 

Harry reached out and caught Draco by the wrists, forcing him to stop pacing and stare directly at him. “Hey. That _was_ the arrangement, and I did it. This wasn’t in the plan, Dray. You know that.”

“Yeah, I know that,” he said quietly. “Obviously.”

“Okay. So this wasn’t planned.”

“It was the farthest thing from my mind,” Draco scoffed. 

“Mine, too.”

Harry took Draco into his arms and they were quiet. The food was forgotten, cold and congealing on the counter; Harry certainly wasn’t hungry anymore. Harry looked at the bottle of the wine on the kitchen counter, knowing that only one of them could partake. He shook his head in disbelief. The sun had set, bathing the house in the inky clouds of dusk. 

“My bookshop,” Draco murmured suddenly. “What’s going to happen with that?” 

Harry thought for a few moments. “I don’t know, hon.” 

“Can we go to bed?” Draco asked. 

“Yeah.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They’d settled on opposite sides of the bed.

Harry had started to drift off to sleep, still in shock, still not believing, when he heard Draco’s thin voice from across the bed. 

“We were supposed to be done.” 

Harry waited so long to answer that Draco thought he’d fallen asleep.

“I know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A week later, Harry and Draco were at his old Healer’s office, a place neither of them had been in over eighteen years. Draco was surly, as he’d been since the day they’d found out, and Harry had learned to just keep quiet. 

On the one hand, Harry mused to himself, this baby couldn’t be coming at a more inopportune time. For one, they’d really begun to enjoy their time as empty-nesters-obviously, or else they wouldn’t be in this situation. For another, Harry and Draco were satisfied with three children, and the idea of starting over in their forties was scary and overwhelming. They’d also been actively in the process of opening Draco’s dream business, and that was all up in the air now. Draco, he knew, was not just scared but also angry and anxious- _mostly because his pants are already getting a little tight,_ Harry thought with a chuckle. 

Healer Flanagan entered the room, smiling at both of them. “Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter! It’s been quite a while...and I see it Mr. Malfoy’s turn for all the fun!” She said with a laugh. Draco glared at her. 

“Draco’s...a bit apprehensive. We both are, truthfully,” Harry said. 

“Well, I know that’s it been a while since you two have done this, and Draco, you are a little older than we’d like-” at this, Draco scoffed and looked offended, “-but there are preparations we can take to make sure everyone stays as healthy as possible. And if the three great kids you’ve raised mean anything, I think you two can handle this baby,” Healer Flanagan said. Harry offered her a small, grateful smile. “Now, let’s see this baby.” 

The Healer inched Draco’s shirt up, and waved her wand over his stomach that was just starting to bulge. She murmured an incantation, and a moment later, they were joined in the room by a small vision of their unborn baby. The familiar _whoosh, whoosh_ of the baby’s heartbeat filled the small exam room. Involuntary tears sprang into Harry’s eyes. He tightened his grip on Draco’s hand, and looked over at him. 

The surly look on Draco’s face had fallen away. Harry could tell that it was real for him, now. It was real for them both. Harry realized something, watching the image of his child spin. 

He was sad that this baby meant they would probably be giving up a few things, things he was excited about. 

But at the same time...this was their baby. A big part of him felt the same way he had felt the other three times he’d found out they were having a child. Excited, and hopeful, and just so _in love_ with the tiny thing that would suck up every ounce of attention. This was his husband. And this child was something they’d made out of the love they had for each other, love that might not have existed had Voldemort had his way, if the entire Wizarding world might have had their way. Bad timing and all, this child meant love.

“Looks like you’re about...thirteen weeks. Already out of the first trimester! You’re due June eighteenth,” Healer Flanagan said, allowing them to marvel at their unborn child for a few more moments before flicking her wand and erasing the image. She wished them congratulations, said the nurse would be in momentarily to schedule his next appointment, and left them alone. 

Harry and Draco were silent for a few more moments, during which time Draco scrubbed tears out of his eyes as haughtily as possible. 

“If this child is coming out of me, I’m naming it,” Draco finally said, a smile playing on his face. 

Harry laughed loudly, and kissed Draco full on the lips. “I guess that’s a fair deal.” 

“And some way, somehow, _I’m opening that bookstore,_ ” Draco said adamantly. Harry nodded. 

“We’ll make it work somehow,” Harry said. 

“Let’s tell the kids next week, at Christmas,” Draco said, rolling down his shirt and smiling at the nurse who had just bustled in to check them out. 

“The kids…” Harry said. 

_Fuck._.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re _what?_ ” Theo spit out, dropping his fork with a clatter. 

The entire Malfoy-Potter clan was sitting at the dining room table-the one their future sibling was likely conceived upon-when Harry and Draco broke the news that they were having another baby. 

Ellie looked thoughtfully at her fathers. “This is a weird joke to tell on Christmas, but whatever.” She stabbed into a piece of the turkey Harry had spent all day preparing. “Turkey’s dry, Dad.” Harry glared at her in annoyance. 

“It’s not a joke. I’m fourteen weeks pregnant, due in mid-June,” Draco said. 

“You’re _old_ ,” Liam said emphatically, looking at his fathers with disdain. “How can you be having a baby, you’re practically _ancient_!”

“I’m forty-two, thank you very much, son,” Draco said. 

“You’re being serious, you’re actually pregnant?” Theo asked, and Draco sighed. He rummaged around in the pile of papers on the coffee table and produced the picture the Healer had given them. Liam, Theo and Ellie crowded around and stared at it, their mouths agape. 

“But...you’re so _old_ ,” Liam repeated, and Draco groaned. 

“Guys, come on,” Harry said, trying, as always, to be the referee. 

“Forty-two is practically dinosaur-aged when it comes to being pregnant, Dad. You’re five minutes away from being wiped out by an asteroid or whatever,” Ellie said with a sly smile, continuing to eat her meal. 

“Okay, okay,” Harry said after seeing Draco, who looked utterly defeated. “I know this is a shock to you guys, but believe me, it was for us as well. But we’ve accepted it and we’re excited now.”

Draco cleared his throat. “I know that I’m always the sarcastic one, making jokes, but I need the three of you to be on our side with this. I’m scared bloody shitless about this, in all honesty, and the only thing that’s going to get me through besides Dad is knowing how much I love you all, and knowing that I’ll love this baby just as much as that.”

The kids nodded. 

“We’ll be here for you, Dad, we’re just surprised is all,” Theo said, and Ellie and Liam nodded.

“Believe me, we were, too!” Harry said, squeezing Draco’s hand.

“Nobody more so than me. I’m still not all that thrilled that I’m the one who has to do it, but that’s where we’re at. _So_ , I need your support, and please keep the mother dinosaur jokes to a maximum of two per day. I thank you, and so does my fetus,” Draco said, raising his water glass and clinking it with those of his family, who laughed. 

“You have no _idea_ how much I wish this was wine,” Draco said, draining the glass of water in one gulp. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Two years later_

The bookshelves were outlined with white Christmas lights, and wreaths with large red bows were hanging on all the doors and windows. A large Christmas tree stood in the corner, festooned with silver and gold bulbs and magically charmed fairy ornaments that flew in and out of the tree.

Harry smiled, standing at the back of the store and watching as Draco greeted customers as they browsed the aisles of the bookstore. Oliver’s head was resting on Harry’s shoulder, his thumb plugged into his mouth as he fought sleep. “I know, bug. It’s been a long day. We’ll go home soon, I promise.” Oliver snuggled silently into Harry’s shoulder.

Draco looked up and spied the two of them, and headed over. “He’s not still awake, is he?”

“Daddy,” Oliver said sleepily, and reached out for Draco, who took him from Harry. Oliver was every inch Draco’s twin, with Harry’s green eyes, and despite the rocky start they’d gotten off to, Draco was mad about him. He rocked his son back and forth, liking the solid weight of his child in his arms. This unexpected blessing. 

“I think I’ll take him home,” Harry whispered, seeing Oliver’s eyes finally close. It had been an exciting day for their family: the first day of Draco’s bookstore being open. At nine that morning, _Malfoy’s Books_ had opened to the public, and people had been milling about ever since. Liam, Theo and Ellie had been by for a while, taking turns playing with Oliver and watching him so their dads could mingle with the customers. They’d adjusted brilliantly to being older siblings to this much-younger sibling. Draco hadn’t stopped beaming all day. 

“I’m just so fucking proud of you,” Harry said quietly, kissing his husband briefly. “You made this happen, all while we’ve been readjusting to being parents of a little one. You’re incredible, you know?” 

“Yes, I know,” Draco said matter-of-factly, making Harry laugh. “I didn’t think it would happen, and it wouldn’t have without you.” 

“A rare moment of gratitude for your brilliant husband. I’ll take it,” Harry said devilishly, Draco rolling his eyes at him over Oliver’s head. 

“Shut up. I love you. Take our son home.”

“Will do,” Harry said with a smile.

_The End_

**Author's Note:**

> Please help promote the fest by sharing your favourite submissions so more people can enjoy the HD Mpreg fest
> 
> Thanks!  
> Author and artist reveals are on June 16th.


End file.
